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Verizon Pulls Plug on Auction

Updated Sept. 30, 2004 6:32 p.m. ET

Verizon Communications Inc. has pulled the plug on the auction for its upstate New York phone lines eight months after putting them on the block. The New York-based telephone company in February announced it was shopping the assets, which include 2.5 million phone lines. Verizon had hoped to receive bids of as much as $7 billion, according to sources familiar with the auction. The company offered no reason in a statement for its decision to "suspend talks with potential buyers," although it said that it would continue "to evaluate the upstate access lines and other assets and properties in our...